17 March, 2016

Review – Samurai Warriors 4 Empires

By
Kyle Shimmin

The officers of the Warring States continue to do battle at blistering
speeds in Samurai Warriors 4 Empires. No, you would not be unjust is suggesting
this game released twice before, nonetheless, Empires takes some important and consequential
steps.

Samurai Warriors 4 Empires

Despite my review history, and longer-reaching game history being
littered with Koei Tecmo’s Warriors titles, I still find the act of penning a
review difficult. It’s not that I think they should not, or need not be
reviewed, rather I’m always faced with the difficulty of conveying the
Marmite-like hack n’ slash gameplay and the regularity of their releases.

In truth I doubt many people truly hate the Warriors
button-mashing action, as the Marmite analogy would suggest, I would suspect
most who don’t love it as I do are simply bored by it, which is maybe a greater
failing for a videogame. And I do so love it, but like every pleasure I have
thus far encountered in my few years, it is best enjoyed in moderation. Having
wised up to Koei Tecmo’s typical release schedule, I played the original
Samurai Warriors 4, but gave Samurai Warriors 4-II a miss, had I not, Empires
would have doubtless been a disappointing to some degree. The combat, music,
and character models are all unchanged from Samurai Warriors 4, or indeed 4-II;
hyper attacks continue to look awesome and feel satisfying. Naturally,
additional strategic systems have been layered atop.

Fortunately, Samurai Warriors 4 Empires shares little in
common with the rather deplorable Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires; for one it is
technically sound, my experience was free of crippling bugs and performance
issues, more than that though there are meaningful changes to the way strategy
is portrayed. The game has far more in common with Koei Tecmo’s dedicated
strategy series Nobunaga’s Ambition, which as the name suggests, shares Samurai
Warriors’ romanticised feudal Japanese setting. This commonality is most obviously
expressed through the iconography and interface, but is present through several
new systems, including empire development and economy, as well as the supplies
resource that determines how long invasion battles last.

As with all the Warriors Empires games, the goal of the
ruler, or daimyo, is ultimately to unite the land while officers, free or employed
have their own lesser agendas, in this game you may only play as a ruler and
thus are always working towards that expansionist dream. Previous titles such
as the Dynasty Warriors Empires titles have offered an ‘officer mode’ with
varying scope, having you work from lowly lieutenant to ruler’s right-hand. Its
absence here is no profound loss; missions such as, ‘escort this officer’ or
‘kill some tigers’ were best left behind, and while I appreciated the concept,
the mode rarely captured the spirit that called me to the Empires games. You
can of course play as any officer in your employ, and switch between them in-battle
relationships permitting, or to complete in-battle side objectives. Out of
battle though, the mantle of leadership is always yours, though you can
delegate policy decisions to your strategist.

Aside from selecting a strategist, you select numerous
ministers, placing two officers in any given office; development, diplomacy,
and so forth. The skill of your ministers determines the strategic options
you’ll have, as office each will offer two of policies (directives) each turn;
request a rank in the Imperial Court and forge an alliance, for example. The
number of policies you can enact per turn (a season) is dependent upon your fame,
which can be increased through policies and expansion. You can ignore ministers
if you wish and select your own initiatives, but they can enact two policies at
a time, as opposed to your one, so you’re encouraged to at least consider their
suggestions.

The minsters and policies are all surfaced through a castle
interface, a kind of cross-section like an open doll-house. You upgrade your
castle to open additional rooms for new ministers and thus gain new options. There
are a few different and quite meaningful paths down which the castle can be
developed, that have subtly though pleasantly changed the flow of the several
campaigns I’ve played. Aside from looking cool, and facilitating some wondrous
wallpaper options, the castle is an exciting form of progression, offering the
greatest overt incentive for replayability I’ve encountered in the Empires
games.

Through the battle and certain policies, relationships
develop between your officers. In the castle you most frequently see the fruits
of these bonds, as awkward but sometimes endearing exchanges like those found
in Samurai Warriors 4, presented in a manner similar to that of visual novels. As
with real life, relationships are not easily controlled leading to unlikely
friendships, rivalries, and more. Of course, there are plenty of oddly
persistent exchanges between the lower-tiered officers I cannot rarely even
consider caring about. Unlike reality, at least as far as I have experienced
it, it is trivially easy to get married – in each of the campaigns I’ve played,
my most played character has wed long before so much as sharing tea with anyone
else.

Aside from marriage there are new relationships, such as
rivalries, nemeses, and master/protégé. As I’ve already explained, these
relationships are quite spontaneous, rather shallow, and the conversations
woefully stilted. Nonetheless, I find them compelling and find myself longing
for the day someone develops an XCOM game with the same mechanics. The
relationships between historical characters I couldn’t care less about, but
those involving my custom characters are another matter entirely.

Empires features custom characters, using a slightly
modified version of Samurai Warriors 4’s Edit Mode, in fact your saved
characters can be imported if you so desire. What’s new is the parent/child
system, which enables new officers (the child) to appear progresses in their
parent’s faction as the campaign, as they do in the Nobunaga’s Ambition titles.
Unless I’m periodically rendered blind however, I do not believe you can set
custom officers as parents, which is exactly what I want to do, as someone
frequently creates my own factions of officers.

While the combat is unchanged, the battles exhibit some new
and intelligent behaviour. As mentioned, the length of invasion battles depends
upon the supplies committed; battle length is made exponentially more important
by the gulf between one force and another. If your troops are outnumbered by
several thousand, expect a tougher fight; each enemy will be noticeably more
resilient and powerful until you can tip the odds back into your favour. The
chained nature of bases limits what you can capture at any given time, just as in
past titles main camps could only be captured when you had established a supply
line. Furthermore, even if you have secured a route to a base, it’s no guarantee
you’ll have the skill to take it, as bases with multiple enemy supply lines are
bolstered greatly.

On the other hand, if you manage to completely encircle a group
of enemy positions and close your supply lines around them, they’ll fall
instantly under your control. The cascading captures are extremely satisfying
and perfectly suited to the Empire’s battles, the effects of ally-to-enemy
ratio and well supplied bases are equally welcome. All had necessary depth to
the battles, they are apt strategic concerns.

In battle you can assume formations, in spirit only, to buff
you forces and place your enemies at a disadvantage. There are also passive and
active tactics you can employ, such as calling in supporting cavalry to
weaken enemy bases, or ordering a rain of cannon fire. Though they appear in
the battles, there’s no visual fanfare, no pop, it’s just not exiting to
unleash that kind of strategy even if they do get the job done. Previous
Empires games have at least provided short cutscenes, and featured for dynamic stratagems,
such as blocking or flooding portions of the map.

The game’s core is very much that of Samurai Warriors 4,
there are no two ways about it, but do not dismiss the profound impact of the
blistering speed and style of hyper attacks, in all their particle-rich glory. The
broadened scope of the officer relationships is welcome and weird, in much the
same manner as the vignettes of 4’s Chronicles mode. On the strategic front Samurai
Warriors 4: Empires is perhaps the most competent of the Empires games, thanks
to new dynamic flow of battles and the castle progression, though there are
weakness’ that have been overcome in past and related titles.